Browser default keeps changing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jon Stolson
  • Start date Start date
J

Jon Stolson

Hello Gurus-

I admit I know little about this stuff so am turning to
the board for HELP.

I have two very recent problems that have forced me to go
to NETSCAPE because explorer is giving me fits. problem
# 1: Every day my computer re-establishes a default home
page to some advertising site called "lookfor". I keep
returning it to yahoo.com but it just kkeps going back
every day to the "lookfor.com" site. Also, I now can't
get the Ameritrade streamer (real time stock quotes) to
work, but can get some of the other Ameritrade stuff to
work just fine. And it isn't a java problem, either..

Under netscape, i get the streamer from Ameritrade so the
problem is not with Ameritrade, it is with Explorer. i
know i have a virus, and I have McAfree virus products,
but it isn't helping. I reloaded Windows XP ... nothing
has helped.

Ok, gurus....thinking caps. Now remember, I'm no genius
on this stuff so keep the replies fairly simple. I am
somewhat computer literate, but not great either.

THANKS!
 
Jon,

Quoting Jim Byrd:

I believe that this is one of the CoolWebSearch variants. Do the
following:

Download and run: http://www.merijn.org/files/cwshredder.zip to remove the
parasite

Then download and run:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iegentabs.reg to restore your
tabs and remove any restrictions that the parasite has put in place.

However, this also indicates that you may have acquired some other malware
along the way. If you go to this page at Jim Eshelman's site, here:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.htm and wait a little bit (be patient), an analysis
of a number of possible parasites on your machine will be made to help you
identify and remove them. NOTE: You will need to disable Ad Blocking in Zone
Alarm 3.x, if present or any other Ad Blocking software which interferes
with Java Scripting for this scan to work. You should get a message between
the two lines of **** giving the results of the scan.

Get Ad-Aware 6.0, Build 181 or later, here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/. Update and run this regularly
to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on your machine. If it has to fix
things, be sure to re-boot and rerun AdAware again and repeat this cycle
until you get a clean scan. The reason is that it may have to remove
things which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.

Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here: http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be sure to
re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean
"no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove things
which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.

Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

Once you get this cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html (Prevents malware Active
X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory resident ... no CPU or
memory load - but keep it updated) The latest version as of this writing
will prevent installation or prevent the malware from running if it is
already installed, and it provides information and fixit-links for a variety
of parasites.

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware) Both Very Highly Recommended.

Unquote.

Good luck,

Zee
 
This is caused by parasites.

Homepage changes unexpectedly:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/IEFAQ.htm

--
Ramesh - Microsoft MVP
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k
-------------------------------------------
How to block Pop-ups?:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Popups.htm

Using ToolbarCop to remove the unwanted Toolband, Toolbar Icons and BHO:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm
-------------------------------------------


Hello Gurus-

I admit I know little about this stuff so am turning to
the board for HELP.

I have two very recent problems that have forced me to go
to NETSCAPE because explorer is giving me fits. problem
# 1: Every day my computer re-establishes a default home
page to some advertising site called "lookfor". I keep
returning it to yahoo.com but it just kkeps going back
every day to the "lookfor.com" site. Also, I now can't
get the Ameritrade streamer (real time stock quotes) to
work, but can get some of the other Ameritrade stuff to
work just fine. And it isn't a java problem, either..

Under netscape, i get the streamer from Ameritrade so the
problem is not with Ameritrade, it is with Explorer. i
know i have a virus, and I have McAfree virus products,
but it isn't helping. I reloaded Windows XP ... nothing
has helped.

Ok, gurus....thinking caps. Now remember, I'm no genius
on this stuff so keep the replies fairly simple. I am
somewhat computer literate, but not great either.

THANKS!
 
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